


Road to the End, Volume 5

by digitaleva



Series: Road to the End [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-09-23 07:04:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9645584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digitaleva/pseuds/digitaleva
Summary: Team COLD is captured by the White Fang, leading to their interrogation by a mysterious member in their upper echelon. Ruby is chosen to lead a rescue mission.





	1. Captured

Dante slowly sat up, his vision blurry. He didn't remember having a headache this bad before now. As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he could make out the corners of the room that he was in. He made a move to get to his feet and stretch, only to be met by heavy resistance at his wrists. Looking down, he caught light glistening off of thick metal.

"When did I...?"

He then started scanning the room, looking for any form of tool to help him get out. However, the only thing he found was his team mates, who were also cuffed and starting to come around as well. He waited while they all adjusted to the conditions before opening his mouth.

"Caos, what happened?"

"No clue. Lapis?"

"Uh-uh. Nothing here. Also, my head is killing me."

"Ditto on that," Caos said, going to move her left hand up, only to discover the cuffs. "Were we arrested?"

Based on this room," Dante answered, "I highly doubt it."

In an infinitely better lit room, Adam's former lieutenant was watching them on a low light camera. Satisfied that they were conscious, he turned to face a taller Faunus.

"They're awake now. Do what you need to."

The taller individual nodded and made a motion in the direction of two other members of the organization. They nodded and headed out of the room ahead of him.

Back in the cell, the occupants were momentarily blinded as the door was opened. They only figured out what was going on when they heard their cuffs hitting the floor.

"We're only doing this because the boss said so."

"Yeah. So no funny business, you hear?"

"The boss?"

"You'll see," the one said. "You. With the ears. You're a Faunus, aren't you? Did they hurt you at all?"

Lapis merely turned her head away from them at this.

"He asked if you were okay. These two humans weren't going to hurt you, were they?"

"They're my friends and team mates. I highly doubt it."

The two then left the room, muttering something about how she was "in denial" and that they "felt bad for her". Their presence was soon replaced by a much taller individual.

As he entered the confined space, he seemed to have to duck to clear the doorframe, his 6'2" height almost too tall for the opening. From what the trio could make out, his attire was modified from the normal appearance of the White Fang uniform, in that the outermost layer went down almost to his ankles, seemingly tapering in the same style as a warrior monk's robes. His hands were covered with black gloves, but the soft sounds of varying mechanisms could be barely made out through it.

"The cameras are off, as are the microphones, so nobody outside can hear you. Unless, of course, you scream." He turned to face Dante and Caos, adding a quick, "Not that they'd help you, anyway."

Looking around at them, he knocked on the door three times, and the lights came on, the sudden light once, again, nearly blinding the team.

"Why are you here?"

Caos remained tight lipped, as did Lapis. Dante, however, decided to shoot a comment back.

"I could ask you all the same thing."

This was met with a swift backhand, which only served to confirm the fact that their interrogator was in possession of a mechanical limb. The figure loomed over the now prone Huntsman, and, as he stooped down to lift him effortlessly by the collar, he whispered a single phrase into his ear: "Of all the people they could send, it had to be you three."

He then released his grip on the shorter human, causing him to fall back into the corner, turned, and left the room.

"You alright, Dante?"

The dark haired male smirked. "Oh yeah. And I think we're gonna be just fine as well."


	2. Campus Confusion

The sun dawned bright and early on Beacon's campus, and students slowly made their way from sleep into consciousness. At least, they would have, if it hadn't been for a cacophonous series of events several hours earlier. This meant that every student was already wide awake, with many of them grumbling about the lack of sleep.

It had started around 4:30, when Yang, in a rare case of somnambulance, had begun wandering the halls, knocking over just about everything she bumped into. This had been preceded by her bringing her sister into a wakeful state after she tried to destroy the bathroom door, claiming that it had "offended her honor".

This had prompted the younger woman to wake as her girlfriend, slightly annoyed, had rolled over.

"Ruby..... yur sister...."

"Mm... On it...."

She rubbed her eyes, her vision clearing and focusing just in time to move to one side, as a door knob flew right through where her head had been only moments earlier. Now fully conscious, she turned as the knob rolled back and landed against her hand.

"What the...?"

Ruby turned to see Weiss slowly rising, her hand seemingly glued to her left eye.

"Weiss? Are you okay?"

The white haired woman removed her hand, revealing the area around the ocular organ to be bright red, and quickly swelling. Ruby winced, as, even though she knew that her girlfriend's Aura would heal the immediate wound, it would not look 100% for a few hours. In the short amount of time the shorter woman had been distracted, her sister had managed to waltz out of the bathroom, across the dorm, and out into the hall.

"Weiss, are you..."

"I'll be fine. Just go stop your sister."

Planting a quick kiss on the older woman's cheek, Ruby zipped out of the door, her trademark rose petals leaving no doubt as to her direction of travel. It was not long after she left that Blake finally stirred.

"What's going on?"

"Yang. That's what."

"We should stop her."

"Ruby's on it. You just stay in bed."

The Faunus shook her head. "No can do, there."

She was already in the bathroom when she noticed an obvious change. "Why is the doorknob gone?"

Down the hall, Ruby was following her sister closely. She had been joined by Ren, who, for reasons he wouldn't divulge, was already awake.

"Should we wake her up?"

"Ruby, that may be unwise. Waking a sleep walker can trigger some incredibly dangerous aftermath, and I wouldn't want to see it happen. Especially not to your sister."

"Right. But we gotta get her back in bed!"

"There are ways to do that."

The martial artist grinned slightly and stealthily moved down the hall and around the still unaware blonde. Putting his arms out to their full length, he said one thing, "This way is closed, you'll need to go back."

Almost like magic, Yang stopped, turned abruptly on the spot, and lazily drifted back down the hall to the dorm they were in. As soon as she was inside, Ruby surveyed the damage that had been caused.

Almost every painting on the walls was either crooked or knocked to the floor. There were several shattered remains of potted plants, and the wall just across from their room was the proud owner of a brand new hole, which was, the scythe user assumed, thanks to her older sister attempting to fight something that wasn't there.

"You know, Ruby, it's a good thing we're on the ground floor. Otherwise, this could have been far worse than it was."

"Yeah... She's a little different now."

"Don't worry too much about it. At least you can all keep food in your fridge. Nora insisted on eating almost all of ours."

"Is that why you're up?"

"Partially. The other reason was that I could hear you moving around out here."

"Oh. Sorry."

"No need to apologize. Need a hand cleaning this all up?"

Ruby looked around and nodded in affirmation. She wasn't going to turn down an offer of help from one of her closest friends, and she knew how to repay him.

"You wanna join us for breakfast after this?"

Ren hadn't even though about what time it was until he noticed that the hallway was beginning to take on some of the morning light from outside.

"That sounds wonderful. Thank you."


	3. Retry, Abort, Fail I

"So, Caos?"

The blonde woman looked at the source of the voice and scoffed. She wasn't sure how, but she had a sneaking suspicion it was his fault that they had been captured.

"What do you want, Dante?"

The dark haired Huntsman recoiled slightly at the detected anger in her response. However, he wasn't about to get his answer by sitting silently.

"You never did say what you did after The Fall."

"And that concerns you how? You decided to disappear."

"But I came back."

"Pfft. Yeah. When it suited you."

"Caos, there is no call for..."

"And you," she snapped, turning to her Faunus companion. "You were supposed to go get him. I gave you a simple job. And you messed that up!"

"Caos! She doesn't deserve that! She couldn't find me because I didn't want to be found!"

"Whatever. At least I was helping to get things back in order after my project was ruined."

"Your..."

"...project?"

The blonde human roughly connected her head with the wall, the cold metal letting out a dull thud as she did. She remembered all too well what had happened after Beacon had fallen.

~5 Years ago~

"Those damn morons...."

Caos was getting more and more furious, as the pile of damaged and broken computer equipment in the back of the room would attest. She had been in charge of development of the AK Project, which had produced the M37A Atlesian Knight. However, she had just found that roughly 90% of her work had been undermined and undone.

"Ma'am?"

Caos whipped around, her glasses flying off her head and being slammed into the table as she did so.

"Do not. EVER. Call me that. Are we clear?"

The soldier who had committed the offense swallowed hard and shook his head.

"I can't hear you."

"Y... Yes... Understood."

"Understood... what?"

"Understood, sir."

"Thank you," she calmed a bit more, and then made an inquiry. "What do you need?"

"Just here to tell you that the general wanted an update."

"He'll get his update when there is an update to give. And you can quote me on that."

The grunt saluted, turned and left the room the blonde was occupying, leaving her to her thoughts.

She returned her attention to the android lying on the table before her. Something was off about it, but she couldn't exactly place her finger on what was missing. She had been all over every last module that was readily accessible in the code for maintenance.

Joint Modulation? Everything checked out.  
Internal Pressure and Temperature Systems? Perfectly fine.

As she ran down the list, something clicked and she picked up the dictionary-sized device that was near the robot's head. There was one thing she hadn't checked. Synching the device up to her scroll, she began looking through the files. And then she saw it.

"They did it. They actually did it after I told them that it would cause a huge problem." She stood up, saved a copy of the code she was viewing to her device, and unplugged everything. "I've got to go see James. He needs to know about this."


	4. Retry, Abort, Fail II

"They did what!?"

James Ironwood, the man who was usually composed and well put together, couldn't believe the words he was hearing.

"Yes, sir, based on this, they did."

"Can you please run this by me, one more time?"

Caos restarted the displayed files, and stopped them when she got to her point.

"As you can see from this code right here, they have set a null value into the OS, disabling override protocols that would have prevented them from going haywire."

"After you told them not to do that?"

"That is correct, general."

The cybernetic commander sighed before his next inquiry. "Can you fix it?"

Caos' mouth tweaked upwards slightly. She had been hoping for this moment. "General, I wrote this code. I can definitely undo what they did."

"How soon can you have it done," the general slumped slightly in his chair as he uttered the statement. "I don't want to keep sending good people out to die reclaiming the city if it can be avoided."

"Give me a couple hours. I merely need to tell it to call the code module up. And those lines were deleted, plus my coding is a little rusty."

"You have it."

Caos turned on the spot, and walked out of the room to be met with a slight annoyance.

"So, are we gonna have to go out again?"

She sighed at the blonde Faunus. He had been asking if his team could take a break for a while, and they certainly looked like they needed it.

"Look, fixing this is going to take some time, so please stand aside and let me get back to work."

Sun side stepped towards one wall, allowing her to pass.

"So, dude, what's the verdict?"

"Get your gear, Neptune. We're going out again."

Back in her assigned workspace, Caos immediately set to work recoding the complex android. She would no sooner fix one segment of the code, than another dependency would show up, revealing that the rewrites which had happened after she had left were far more extensive than she had initially thought.

"This is getting to be a bit bigger than I had thought," she sighed, removing the green tinted eyewear, allowing her eyes a rare moment of existing light. Placing the glasses on the desk in front of her, she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I never should have left."

She slumped a little in her chair before speaking to no one in particular, "It's all my fault. This whole thing.... it's my fault."

~One Year Later~

"They're performing far better than they did before. Excellent work."

Caos and Ironwood were watching another team of soldiers return, with the only casualties having been mechanical, and therefore acceptable losses.

"Thank you. I apologize that it took longer than planned."

"There is no need to apologize. You uncovered a great many flaws in the units."

~Present Day~

"So that's it, eh?" Dante smirked as Caos finished talking.

"Yeah. Which is more than I can say for you. You went and got yourself hurt."

Dante raised his hand to move his fingers over the trio of scars that adorned the left side of his face. "You're right. And I have to live with that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a reason for this. Well, a couple, actually. While this was two parts, originally, I started looking at it from an animation standpoint, and that led to the split. The underlying reason was that I just fell asleep, and accidentally made a cliffhanger.
> 
> Oh well. Two part flashback sequence FTW!


	5. Restrictions

"What do you mean we can't!?"

Yang was irate at the news that she and Blake were on restricted duty, which meant that they would have to stay on Campus for the next seven months.

"Yang, please."

"Dad, I... I don't understand. Why?"

The older blonde looked at his daughter, concern written all over his face. "I... I know about you and Blake. And I know about Neptune."

"But... how could you know... about...." Yang's voice faltered as she tried to wrap her head around her father's statements.

"All I'm asking, Yang, is that you and Blake take it easy for a while, okay? I'm not going to ask you to give up being a Huntress. I wouldn't dream of it. But you're in no condition to physically fight anybody, let alone Grimm."

The blonde woman bowed her head and walked towards the door, ready to leave her father's office.

"Alright. If you think it's for the best."

She then exited the room, to be met by a waiting Ruby.

"Is everything okay?"

"Not exactly."

The younger sister was slightly confused at the statement. "How so?"

"That Grimm culling trip we were going to take? The one we were going to do as a team? It's only gonna be you and Weiss."

"You don't mean...."

"Yeah. Dad put his foot down on this one. Blake and I are not to go on any hunts."

"For how long!?"

"For a few months," she said, glancing down towards the ground.

"Ooooo..... Gotcha. I'll let Weiss know, okay?"

"Ruby.... I...." She struggled to find the words, her younger sister still having a little naivety was nice, but she had a feeling that she knew fully well what was going on.

"What's wrong, Yang?"

"It... I... It's nothing. Go on. I... I gotta go find Blake."

Down in Vale, Sun was sitting with Neptune at a cafe. The two were having a long conversation, and it wasn't one that would end well.

"Dude, you gotta come back. She needs you right now!"

"I told you, man: I'm not ready for that."

The blonde scoffed before his next utterance. "Uh-huh. I see. So you're afraid of water AND being a parent."

"Hey! I am not afraid! I'm just... not ready for it yet!"

"Listen, Neptune: You and I have been bouncing from cheap motel to cheap motel all month. I came to find you because you need to settle it with her. You at least owe her that."

"I... uh... I guess you're right. But I don't wanna... you know... die, or anything like that."

"Pfft! Yang won't kill you!"

At a nearby table, a man stood up and walked over to where the two young Huntsmen were seated.

"Oh, she'll kill you. If I know my niece, and I do, she's damn angry. And rightfully so."

"Heya, Qrow!"

"'sup, banana-boat?"

"Just, you know, trying to convince him to come back and at least talk it out with her."

"You're a nice kid, but I'm gonna clue you in on something: He won't come back."

"Oh yeah? You'll come back, won't you.... Nep...tune... AW COME ON!"

The monkey Faunus' outburst was at the now empty chair where his former team mate had once been seated.

"He just... he left...."

"Yeah. He did. Tough break," the alcoholic said, fishing his flask out of his pocket as he occupied the seat. He offered the vessel to Sun, with a quick, "Here. Have some. It's not coffee, but it'll get your mind off of things."

The blonde accepted the metal container, and took a sip from it, momentarily caught off guard at the potent spirits being housed within.

"You drink this normally?"

"Ayup. It's a bad habit, I know. But I'm gonna leave you with some major advice."

"And that is?"

"Take care of her, okay? She's been through more hell than she usually lets on, so just be there for her."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because," the older male said before taking a quick swig, "You give a damn, and that's a rare thing in this world. You could have asked her to back off when your emo... er... when Blake showed interest in you, but you didn't. You accepted that she made her happy, too, and by extension, that made you happy."

"What are you getting at, exactly?"

Qrow sighed a little. As smart as Sun was, it wasn't going to sink in by beating around the bush.

"Guys like your hydrophobic friend are a dime-a-dozen. And I'm not gonna say I'm some sort of saint, ya know. I've done his maneuver a few times. And, truth be told, it gets old over time. But you? You're the rare breed. You're the kind that will stubbornly stick to something once you set your mind and heart to it. Keep that quality. Fight for what you want."

"But... why trust me?"

"Because Yang does. And if my niece trusts ya, that's enough for me."

"I... uh... I should be heading back to them, then."

"Good plan. Because Blake probably thinks that you left her, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for this being late. I had to go to a family member's house for internet due to the wind storm last week taking out power and,therefore internet, in my area. We're hoping to have everything back up and running at home before Thursday this week, but that is all dependent on things going smoothly.
> 
> For those reading this, and who continue to read this, thank you! I really appreciate it.


	6. Reports

"So then I told them that nothing was going to stop us, and let 'em have it!"

Nora was recounting a tale from some hunt, which she was more than likely embellishing, based on how many times Ren had rolled his eyes in the past couple of minutes. Over the years, they had all learned it was better to stay quiet and let her continue to go on with her story, as opposed to attempting to question her on the details she gave. It just saved a lot of headaches.

Ruby and Ren had stepped off to the side to have their own conversation while the hyper-active woman was regaling a group of students with tales of her exploits, all the while ready to intervene in the event that she would get too racy for school material.

"So, how are you enjoying teaching?"

"Well," the scythe user sheepishly admitted, "I'm not really teaching. I'm just filling in for a teacher while they're away on a mission."

"I see. And that teacher would be?"

Before she could answer, the doors to the back of the room flew open faster than anybody had ever seen them before. The new arrival stood there for a moment, catching his breath, before straightening up and walking directly over to where the pair was having their discussion.

"Professor Terra?"

"Ruby, where's your scroll?"

"It's on my... on the... over there." She swung her hand out, indicating the desk in the corner. "Not sure why though. Nothing has come up for me or Weiss in months."

"That's exactly what General Ironwood wants to discuss with you."

In their tiny cell, the members of Team C_LD were sitting, awaiting their next round of interrogation. The last one, when Lapis had been led out to another room, had been long, lasting around 5 hours. And they weren't sure why it was going on. They had nothing to hide, and nothing to tell. For all they knew, they were hostages in some idiotic ploy to get the kingdoms to bargain.

Not that it was going to work, as all four, as well as Menagerie, weren't willing to negotiate any longer. Under normal circumstances, it would be logical for a group to stop their actions against people upon losing all support from even their former allies, but this wasn't the case. The White Fang was getting funding from somewhere, and they weren't certain, but they would find out.

Attempts at escaping had all been met with increased levels of aggression from the guards, who seemed to be a little too knowledgeable about how good Caos and Dante were about getting out of tough situations. Too many things didn't add up to them, and it was beginning to lead to one conclusion for the blonde human: There was a leak in their information networks. It was the only thing she could imagine was behind it.

Before she could voice her opinion again, the door to their shared cell opened, and Dante was led out.

"Boss wants to talk to this one again. Not sure why, though. He's more useful as a corpse."

Playing along, Dante let himself be led from the cell to the interrogation room, where he was well aware he could scream, shout, and even say whatever he wanted, as the lack of motion from the servos in the camera had clued him in to it being either disabled or non-functional. Upon arrival, he let them place him roughly into the hard metal chair, and waited until they released the cuffs binding him before placing his hands on the table, rubbing his wrists as he did so.

"You still haven't told me why you're here."

"And you still haven't told me why you are."

The towering Faunus slammed his hands on the table, the mechanical prosthetics leaving decent sized divots in the surface.

"Just tell me why they sent you three, and you can all die."

"See, I don't see it that way, big guy."

The sarcastic remark was met with a slap to the face, the action causing his interrogator's hood to move just enough to give him a clear view of his ears and hair.

"I knew it."

Back on campus, Ruby was in her father's office, along side Nero and Ironwood. The mood wasn't any lighter than it had been when she had been brought up following her encounter with Cinder at the dance years ago, but she had since learned to better handle this kind of situation.

"What do you mean they're missing?"

"Exactly that, Miss Rose," Ironwood spoke, his voice having lost none of it's commanding tone over the time she had known him.

He stood, his coat following behind him as he walked over to the desk, where he placed his scroll.

"This is the area we sent them to, to meet with an operative. He's been in deep cover far longer than planned, and we were hoping to get him back."

"How long?"

"Excuse me?"

"You said your man has been in deep cover far longer than planned. How much longer?"

"He was supposed to have been pulled out after the Vytal Festival tournament. And... well," his voice faltered slightly, "you are all aware of how that even went."

"James, I know you didn't mean for things to get that out of hand then. You did what you could."

"Thank you, Tai, but I was in charge of security, and I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong people, and families paid with their children's lives."

He stood for a minute, lost in thought, before running a hand on his short facial hair and regaining his composure.

"In any case, that is where you two come in. I want to send you both to the glacial shelf to retrieve them."

"Not possible."

"I beg your pardon, Mister Terra, but it is entirely possible."

"Not what I meant. I mean that a mission like this requires more than just two people."

Taiyang placed his elbows on the desk. He knew what was going to be requested, and it helped him to understand the stress that Ozpin had been under running the school.

"Who do you want?"

"I want to chose."

All eyes turned to Ruby, who, up to this point, had been silent. She knew it was better to let the senior members present discuss matters like this, but she wasn't about to make a light decision.

"Ruby... are.... are you sure? This is a big responsibility."

"Dad, trust me. I know what I'm doing in this case."

The general turned to her concerned father, a reassuring look on his face.

"She's right. In fact, we wouldn't even be here right now if it hadn't been for her. The entire plan to retake the school was put together by your daughter. For what it's worth, I would trust any decision she makes."

"Very well. Who did you have in mind, Ruby?"

The cape clad huntress walked over to the desk and pulled up the roster of students. Scrolling through, she was shaking her head at all of the options before stopping at one.

"I want them."

"Ruby, they're freshmen!"

"So were we when we went to Mountain Glenn, dad. They can handle it. Look at their records."

Taiyang proceeded to check field records for each of the students. Sure enough, their performance up to this point had been exemplary, and there was no reason to believe that they couldn't handle the mission.

"Very well, Ruby. You have them. But if things get out of hand, I want you to get them out of danger, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear."


	7. Shattered Glass I

"Take the left!"

"Got it!"

The four spilt apart to go left and right, surrounding their prey. They knew it was going to take a concentrated effort to take down the pair of oversized beasts, but they could also tell that one would be easier than the other, as it was limping, which gave them the advantage. 

So they hit it first, the double pincer making fast work of the crippled beast, which fell with a ground-splitting thud to the floor of the canyon. They then regrouped to take on their other opponent.

However, the Goliath was not going down without a fight. And, based on the sounds from the sky, the weather was not going to hold out much longer, either. So, with the first drops of water beginning their assault on the ground, the quartet began their standoff.

Caos looked around her. She knew she could trust her team mates. She knew what she was doing. She closed her eyes for a moment to clear her thoughts and focus on the task at hand. She didn't need the adrenalin rush from the first kill clouding her focus.

"Lapis! You're with me! Dante and Sid! Take point! I know how we are going to do this!"

"Dante!"

The brown haired youth looked in the direction of the voice. 

"Wassup?"

"Take care of him, okay?"

"You got it!" He responded confidently. With a smirk, he charged forward, his blades in both hands, to join his team mate.

"What was that about?"

"Your partner worrying about you again. Tri-cut?"

"Sounds good."

No matter how many times he heard him speak, Dante was always amazed that the bat Faunus could remain calm and collected in a situation like this. Returning his focus to the task at hand, he flipped Castor and Pollux around so that they crossed his torso perfectly, and activated his semblance, the sharpened material glowing red as it heated up.

As he approached, he lept into the air, bringing his own weapon, Warforge, over his head, the blade emitting flames as he did so. As he began his descent, he curled up, causing a spinning action to take place, increasing the velocity and potential force he would impact the massive Grimm with. He knew he had to hit the beast only moments after Dante hit to ensure the most damage was done and their quarry couldn't retaliate against them for the strike.

Just as planned, the attack went off perfectly, with only a minor casualty: Pollux was lodged firmly in the feral terror's trunk, and it wasn't coming out. And Dante wasn't going to let go of it, either.

"Oh. No. You. Don't."

The pair were both swinging their blades at the beast's hide, but at the range they were at, neither weapon possessed the power to free the trapped weapon.

With a series of quick muscle contractions, the beast flung its head around, sending the male human skyward, and torquing Pollux far beyond its capacity, snapping it in two, the section with the hilt following its owner into the air.

He, however, managed to successfully block the surprise attack, only to get slashed across the face by the remaining piece of the blade as it departed the Goliath in the opposite direction.

The blade's owner, having completed his suborbital flight, came down hard, the fall stunning him momentarily, the back section of Pollux falling hard enough to bury itself almost to the hilt in the soft earth not far away.

From behind the beast, gunfire rang out as Caos and Lapis commenced their strikes, with the female human virtually throwing the female Faunus at near Mach 3 at the target: The Goliath's back legs.

With Stormfront in its Glaive form, Lapis managed to hamstring the beast, causing a reaction of shocked pain, and a strike that was aimed at her falling short as it fell back on its haunches, crippled.

Noticing this momentary break in the head movement, he moved to begin a cross strike that would end the beast once and for all.

The ground, now slick with mud, however, wasn't going to cooperate easily, and he lost his footing, the blade merely glancing off the hardened hide on the creature's underside.

The mammoth Grimm then got its prehensile appendage around his ankle and dragged him back out into the open, where it began slamming him against the ground in a blind fury. This was stopped when a point blank blast from Ardjet caused the creature to release him, his body going away from the fight and rag dolling through the mud until it hit a boulder, where it came to rest limply.

His hearing fading out, the last thing he heard was a solitary female voice shouting his name.


	8. Shattered Glass II

-Three days later-

"He's waking up!"

"It's too soon!"  
"He won't survive!"

"Give him the sedative!"  
"Yeah, but at that amount? It could kill him!"  
"Just get him back to sleep!"

The voices garbled together as the familiar pressure surged through his blood stream. Who would die? Who was waking up too soon?

He couldn't tell, and he couldn't care. The doctors were concerned about somebody, obviously. But he couldn't tell who. No names were said. They always referred to their source of worry as "the patient" or "him". Never a name. Never anything to identify the source of their worry. So he let himself drift back into unconsciousness. After all, the bright lights were merely just part of his dream, and he'd wake up, soon enough, back in his dorm room.

-Three months later-

"Good. Now I need you to walk towards me."

He did as he was told, taking a few steps in the direction of the voice. This seemed to please the individual on the other end.

"Excellent. Now, can you increase your speed?"

He complied. Again, the voice was pleased.

-One year later-  
"So, you want to join our cause, do you? Very well. Those humans did a number on you."

-Present Day-

The Faunus raised his head rapidly, his eyes shooting open. It had all been a nightmare. A nightmare he knew he'd never wake from. And now...

Now those three were here, escorted by M37A units, to get him. It had to be a trap. But if they had been sent... And when did the dark haired human have a trio of scars on his face? No. That wasn't important, he told himself, shaking his head back and forth. There was no way that they had been sent to get him.

And, ever since they had shown up, the nightmares had returned. Or were they memories? He couldn't tell any more. He just knew that if they were here....

What was even real? What was the nightmare, and what was reality? He had to find out. And he was going to do that in one way or another.

He looked at the symbolic mask of the White Fang, the Grimm-styled facial wear a reminder of where he was at the present time. And, in that moment, he made a decision. He was getting out of there.


End file.
